Apple pays $60 million to use the iPad name

It’s fair to say that Apple’s iPad has been *pretty successful over the past few years, but it’s not all been sunshine and rainbows. In China, Apple ran into a few hurdles when they brought its famous tablet to market, hurdles that have now cost the company $60 million to Chinese company, Shenzhen Proview Technology.

The issues originate from the product name, ‘iPad’ which Proview claim the rights to. The Cupertino-based company purchased these rights from Proview Technology in Taiwan in 2009, which covered them for use of the name in multiple regions across the globe. However the rights for the name’s usage in China fell to Shenzhen Proview Technology, an arm of the company who state that Apple’s previous actions miss the region out altogether.

The Chinese arm of Proview has been trying to block sales of Apple’s iPad in China since launch and it appears that only now will the company be likely to fall silent.

Apple has come to an agreement with Proview to use the iPad name in the country for a settlement fee of $60 million. A large figure on its own merits, but one which Shenzhen Proview Technology’s representative legal group, headed up by lawyer, Mr Xie Xianghui considers to be OK but not “large”, which makes sense considering as noted by the New York Times, the company was initially looking for a settlement fee of around $400 million.

Shenzhen Proview Technology is in fact now owned a group of eight banks which will no doubt appreciate the cash injection from Apple in order to ease the company’s unpaid $1 billion debt.